






ARTICLE 




ffll 



FROM THE 



New Orleans Bee of August 20/71, 



ON THE 



Political .S$itnation, 



BY 



R. HUTCHESON, Esq. 



Me?nber of the A'ew Orleans 'Bar 








NEW ORLEANS. 

PIUNTED AT THE PELICAN BOOK AND JOB PRINTING OFFICK, 

1871. 








" It is a paper of rare ability and force, giving evi- 
dence of a clear and vigorous mind." 

Senator Schurz speech at Nashville, Sept. 20, 1S71. 



ARTICLE 



FROM THE 



New Orleans Bee of August 20, 1871, 



ON THE 




AS ORIGINALLY WRITTEN BY 
Ifc. HUTCHESON, Esq. 

Member of the New Orleans Bar. 



NEW ORLEANS, LA. : 
PRINTED AT THE PELICAN BOOK AND JOB PRINTING OFFICE. 

1871. 



G*S 



TV 



THE POLITICAL SITUATION: 

DUTY OF THE SOUTH. 



To the Editor of the New Orleans Bee : 

Our many private discussions of political questions, in 
which we have widely differed, especially as to the prop- 
er policy for the Democratic party to adopt at the pres- 
ent time, will, I trust, authorize me to ask a public hear- 
ing of the views which I entertain through the columns 
of your influential and extensively read journal. 

Two facts, it seems to me, are apparent in the present 
political condition of the country. One is that the Re- 
publican party does not seem disposed to deal in the 
right spirit with the questions particularly affecting the 
South, and is not taking a course calculated to bring about 
a speedy reconciliation; nor does it show a disposition to 
effect those reforms which the people are demanding. 

This party seems to rely for success more upon its past 
record, than because it addresses itself in the right spirit 
to existing questions. It continues to contrast its popu- 
lar record of the past with the unpopular record of its 
opponents, who still foolishly persist in remaining in the 
field, and it expects to maintain its ascendency by the 
usual appeals to the passions which unfortunately have 
survived the war, and by exciting the fears of the people of 
reactionary measures by the Democracy in case of their 
success. Their capital is also largely augmented by the 
stupid blundering of the Western Democracy upon the 
financial questions. 

The other fact is, that the party in power in many of 
the States, has been weakened by internal dissensions, 
by a general failure to meet public expectation, and by 
the corruption which overtakes all parties, and could be 
easily overthrown and its rule ended, if all the elements 
opposed to it could be united and rallied on some feasible 
plan of opposition in the next Presidential contest. 



( 2 ) 

The Practical Question of the Day. 

The practical question of the day, especially fur the 
South which is the greatest sufferer, therefore, is, how 
can this be done? Ami as the main strength of the pro- 
posed opposition must I'" made iipofold democrats, this 
question addresses itself mosl directly t<> the Democratic 
party. Thequestion is not without its difficulties and em- 
barrassments, and I approach its discussion with thai deli- 
cacy and deference to the judgments of others which its 
importance demands. 

It must be admitted that the prospect for success for 
some sort of opposition is not only fair, but pretty cer- 
tain. 

The evidence of it may be seen in what hasoccured in 
the State of Missouri under the lead of Carl Schurz and 
Gratz Brown; in the successful coalition of liberal repub- 
licans and democrats in Virginia two years ago; in the 
late political revolution in New Hampshire: ami striking- 
ly in the success of the Citizens' Ticket in the more re- 
cent municipal election in Charleston S. C. 

While the meaning of all this seems plain, and fur- 
nishes irresistible evidence of the existance of abundant 
material to make up a successful party opposition in the 
hands of sagacious and practical managers, a sort of po- 
litical demurrer is put in, ami the question is presented, 
what is success without some principle in view or what 
is success at the sacrifice of principles always heretofore 
maintained by the Democratic party'.' 

So that in the face of an enemy weakened by its dis- 
sensions, we find ourselves distracted by the opposing 
counsels of the men of principle so called, and the men 
(if policy in our own party, and as yet nothing has been 
proposed which promises successfully to harmonize the 
party, much less to unite all the elements of opposition. 

There are men in the Democractic party. North and 

South who argue that the war has settled Qothing of 
principle, and who therefore propose to accept no result of 
a political nature as final, but who believe it to be the duty 
of the Democratic party to preserve its organization, to 
continue to contend for the long recognized principles of 
the party, until the people shall take a second thought 



( 3 ) 

and place that party and its principles again in the as- 
cendant. They say that this is a government of the peo- 
ple who are capable of reasoning, and discriminating in 
judgment, and who will, when passion and prejudice shall 
have yielded to calmer counsels, be impressed at last 
with the truth of democratic principles and come to adopt 
them. 

These men are not at all insignificant in numbers or 
standing, but embrace some of the best minds, followed 
by a large body of the Democratic party. Of course they 
reject the New Departure, so called, and refuse all affili- 
ation with Republicans. They will insist in the coming 
campaign as in all previous ones upon a repetition of the - 
venerable principles of the party, with candidates of the 
clearest democratic record, trusting to time and perse- 
veranc3 for ultimate popular sanction. 



WHAT THE WAR HAS SETTLED. 

For these doctrinaires of the party, I entertain the 
highest respect, having always been one of them, and I 
would defer largely to men with whom I have been in 
the habit of thinking : but in the present emergency of 
the country I am fully persuaded in my own mind that 
their advice ought not to be followed. 

It has indeed seemed to me surprising that men of 
such distinguished ability and learning should have failed 
to appreciate in its full significance the effect of the late war. 

It is a very superficial view of it to say that it was the 
suppression of a rebellion, and the rebellion having been 
suppressed, the States remained in their former relations 
to the Union, as interpreted by States Rights Democrats, 
with all their former powers unimpaired. 

It was not a rebellion or an insurrection, but the with- 
drawal of Suvereign States from a Union which they 
had voluntarily entered, acting not as a rebellious or in- 
surrectionary force, but as organized political communi- 
ties in their sovereign capacity, and claiming the right 
to withdraw as resulting from the nature of the compact, 
as freely to be used in secession as in accession. 



I I ) 

The country had always 1 n divided into two schools 

of interpretation ; the school of Jefferson, who maintained 

the ill 'v of Confederation or States (lights, with the 

remedies "I nullification and secession for State wrongs ; 
and the school of Hamilton or Federalism, which insisted 
upon the opposite theory of the social compact among all 
the people within the jurisdiction of the United States 
or n single political community, or body politic, divided 
into States only as State- are divided into counties, 
constituting a paramount government of the Union in 
which the majority has the right to rule and thai if the 
minority complains, it has not the right of nullification, 
or secession by States, but must seek redress in the 
Courts, or be driven into revolution. In other words, 
one school held that sovereignty resided in the people of 
the States separately c msidered, and the other held that 
the sovereignty resided in the people of the United States, 
considered as a whole. 

The irreconcilable antagonism between these opposing 
schools of the const met ion of the Constitution of the Uni- 
ted States was really at the bottom of the late conflict. 
The acts of secession were occasions rather than causes. 

The argument had been exhausted, and the followers 
of these respective schools stood to their arms to determine 
whichshould prevail in the last greal arbitrament. 

The war was therefore primarily to determine what 
had always been a matter of dispute: Are we a Nation 
prupei-. or a Confederation of distincl sovereignties? 

Alter the adoption of the old Federal Constitution, the 
apprehensions were that the Federal Government would 
encroach upon the rights of the States and of the 
people. Hence the Amendments of 1791 : The IX that. 

••The enumeration in the Constitution of certain rights 
shall not be construed to disparage or deny others retained 
by t he people." 
' And the X. that, 

"The powers not delegated to the United States by 
the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are 
reserved to the Stale- respectively or to the people." 

These amendments were the briei expression of the 
creed of State [lights, placed textually in the old Con- 
stitution. 



(5 ) 

And alongside the text, cut in the tables of the law, 
were the celebrated Resolutions of 1 798, which constitu- 
ted the Democratic interpretation of the Constitution from 
the time of Jefferson, their great author, down to the time 
of their overthrow by the war. 

Al the close of the late struggle the design was, among 
other things, to put to rest this vexed question, and to 
establish fundamentally in the Constitution the opposite 
theory of Consolidation. Hence especially the XIV 
Amendment which should have been the first in order, 
for the others are only corollaries from it. Admit the 
full force of the X1Y amendment, and all that its em- 
braced in the XV amendment would have been proper 
subjects of Congressional legislation without the last 
amendment. This XIV Amendment is a synonym of 
that political theory which was now regarded as victorious, 
not peaceably as the other amendments had been adopted 
in L791, but by the fortune of arms, and was so placed 
in the fundamental law of the nation. This amendment 
accomplishes a complete revolution in the Federal System. 

It creates a single body politic of the people of the 
several States, by making the citizens of the several States 
citizens of the United States. By the aid of the XV 
Amendment, it brings them all directly under the para- 
mount authority of the New Nation for all the purposes 
of government. Nothing now remains in the wide range of 
legislation, except what is prohibited by the Constitution, 
which Congress may not appropriate to itself, and deny 
to the States, if it sees fit; including suffrage, police or 
Ku Klux laws, election laws, education, corporations, 
every thing. In a country so large and diverse in interests, 
habits and customs as ours. Congress will probably not 
assume the entire province of legislation, but will defer 
to the States such exercise of powers as they have here- 
tofore possessed, for convenience' sake, so long as they 
may be considered safe depositories ; so that no great 
change will practically take place in our institutions, 
but it will not be because anything is left inherent in the 
States. 

Nor is it correct to say that it was a "war for the 
Union." It is from this paradox that most of the confu- 



(6) 

sion has arisen since the Weir. It was so called by both Re- 
publicans and war Democrats. And both sides suffered 
themselves to be deceived on this point. Afterthe war 
was over the Republican party from its original stand 
point under the Crittenden Resolutions were at a loss 
for principles to apply to the novel condition. They 
Boon found thai although they had denied the righl of 
secession, and called the southern movement a "rebellion," 
they Iia<l to recognize secession as an accomplished and 
practical fact, or else lose all the fruits of victory, and find 
themselves about where they had begun. They found 
thai as a matter offact, whatever bad been their theory, 
the relation of conquerors and vanquished existed bel ween 
them and the "States in rebellion" so called. Eence the re- 
sort to "reconstruction," and the appointment of military 
or provisional governors, which was a mere mode of the 
exercise of the rightful power of the conqueror. 

This was the usual and natural solution of such cases, 
but it has never been placed upon a very intelligent basis 
excepl by a few clear headed republicans. 

The Democratic leaders so called, failing to appreciate 
the war in its true nature, supposed that when the war 
ended the Union was restored as it was. ami every thing 
would go along as it had.done before. Theyseemedto he 
amazed that a great revolution had not been stemmed by 
the paper resolves of an old Kentucky Senator, and that 
the Constitution had been lost sight of! And bence the 
senseless jargon of Democrats, "in the Union for some 
purposes and out of it for others," and the idle clamor 
that went through the land lor the Constitution to he 
applied to the States which they also agreed had been in 
"rebellion." The Constitution had nothing to do with the 
case. The power to do what was dene lies behind all 
written constitutions, which can neither be the guide 
nor measure ofpowerin a war which rises to the dignity 
of a r '\ olution, 

It was nut a war for the l.'nion. as indeed it could 
imt he. A voluntary Union of sovereign co-equal States 
can not he preserved by force. A combination of the 
stronger States may overrun and conquer the weaker, 
hut to say tliis is preserving a anion between them is a 
contradiction in terms. 



( < ) 

The war was what it turned out to be, a war of tin 
stronger against the weaker, a war of conquest and sub- 
jugation, and the successful war party lias been logically 
and inevitably driven to regard it as such, whether they 
designed it or had a very clear conception of it in the 
beginning or not. And if Democrats now complain of 
any of the consequences of the war, tbey should have 
thought more seriously of them before going into it. 

It was a war of opposing systems of construction, and 
of antagonizing social institutions in which one or the other 
had to go to the wall. In appearance only was it a strug- 
gle to enforce the authority of the Federal Government. 

A great social and political revolution has really been 
accomplished. And like the results of all revolutions, 
what has been done must be accepted as final, unless it is 
proposed to reverse them by a forcible counter-revolu- 
tion. This is not proposed, I believe, by any large number 
either South or North. But it is said that the acts of 
reconstruction, and all the amendments based upon them, 
may be treated as nullities because without warrant in 
the Constitution ; that the Democratic party should dis- 
regard them, and insist upon the Constitution and Union 
as they stood before the war, save perhaps the abolition 
of slavery, which is even claimed by many to have been 
illegally abolished. These are all fatal delusions. 

Reconstruction is not void because unauthorized by 
the Constitution. The Constitution had nothing to do 
with it, because the power to reconstruct was net 
derived from the Constitution, but from the power of the 
conqueror. The amendments are not nullities because 
revolutionary, as absurdly declared at New York, but 
binding for that very reason! Slavery was not abolished 
by the exercise of any power existing or claimed to 
exist in the Constitution, but as a war measure, author- 
by the law of nations. The Union is not what it was, 
nor is the Constitution. The New Nation has superseded 
the old Federal Union, and the Constitution has become 
its organic law instead of a compact between Sovereign 
States, which it was. The means adopted to make 
the changes were of course revolutionary like the 
ends proposed, but they have been none the less, but 



( 8 ) 

rather more successful on this account. The Supreme 
( '.Miri will never disturb them, because they are political 
questions. Three-fourths of all the States will never 
agree to rescind them, and the idea of counter-revolu- 
tion by force is both idle and criminal to entertain 



THE NEW DEPARTURE. 

Appreciating this view of the situation, the Denio< 
party in .-nine of the Northern States are resolving to 
take ;i "new departure." Now, the leaders in this new 
departure movemenl are either sincere, or they are nol 
If they are sincere, they accept the cardinal principles 
of the Republican party as a pnrt of their own faith, and 
differ only in some questions of administrative policy. A 
democrat there lore who takes the departure, may .-i- con- 
sistently vote fora republican for President in L872,\vho 
agrees with Inn in questions "I" public policy, as for one 
of his own number, [fthey are 1 1 « > t sincere, hnt have 
resorted to this as an expedient to obtain power, then 
the purpose is when power is obtained to proceed to car- 
ry out the views of the Democracy, as they have been here- 
tofore held. That is, they will inaugurate such reaction- 
ary Legislation as will again arouse the suspicions and indig- 
nation of the win ilc North, and bring down upon the South 
the evils of renewed agitation of all the old questions: 
invite more remorseless interference in her local affairs, 
and perhaps lead to the reductiou of the reconstructed 
States to permanent military territories, for these gov- 
ernments are only means to ends, and are -til] under the 
authority of Congress, Ii might indeed precipitate an- 
other war, whose consequences would be more disastrous 
i ban i hose of its predecessor. 

And why should all this be risked'.' The Northern 
Leaders might enjoy the spoils of success, but the South 
would be left to held the hot end of the poker! For it 
may beset down as a fixed fact that the North under- 
stands and "accepts the situation" as well as the South. 
and at the first appearance of reaction or counter-revolu- 
tion, she will spring forth to resist it. and put it down, 
in whatever shape it comes. But the effect of the now 



(9 ) 

departure will not be to increase the chances of the Dem- 
ocratic party for power, but rather to reduce them. 

It will dishearten and demoralize the old ranks of the 
Democracy, while the moral effect will be to confirm 
doubtful republicans and add to their ranks fresh recruits. 



The old Democratic party has survived 
its day, and should disband. 

It may readily be deduced from what I have endeav- 
ored to show r , that the old Democratic party has survived 
its day. and the sooner it recognizes this fact and acts 
upon it the better. It should disband at once. It can 
never again come into powerin this country. This is not 
a random guess, or a sensational prediction, but a conclu- 
sion of the mind as certain as any which it is capable of 
reaching by the process of reasoning upon well known 
facts. 

The Democratic party having been identified with the 
losing side on all the questions put in issue in the late 
war, and the great mass of the people acquiescing in the re- 
sults that have been proclaimed, and desiring to rest in 
the belief that the settlement has been a final one, will 
naturally and perhaps correctly suspect the Democracy 
of reactionary purposes, and will refuse to trust them. 

The Democratic party was the pro-slavery party of 
the country : it was a secession party, or at least held to 
thai construction of the Constitution whose logical result 
was secession, and these great central facts will remain 
indellibly fixed in the minds of the American people, 
both white and black. 

Every confederate may not have been a democrat, but 
every democrat of prominence in the South, as w 7 ell as 
the rank and file, were confederates, while the soul of 
the Northern Democracy was never in the war, but the 
party there took its stand directly or indirectly in oppo- 
sition to it. These are facts which have passed into 
history, and which it is useless to attempt to deny or dis- 
guise. And no measures it may now propose, as well 
calculated as they may be to promote the public good, 
will ever countervail the popular odium into which the 



( I") 

party has fallen. For it may be said of the old Demo- 
cratic leaders as Thiers has said of the Orleans Princes; 
"Providence attaches a mysterious fatality to their per- 
sons." 

The truth is, that the mission of the old Democratic 
party ended on thai fata] day when the greal argument 
was transferred to the battle field. Since thai even! it 
has been a useless actor on the stage. It should have 
disappeared with the war by which the old issues have 
been solved. The country has dow become republican- 
ized in its essential principles by the war and ii will re- 
main so. 

Following the course of the other old parties of the 
country whose principles have been condemned by the 
people, the Democratic party must pass away. 

The old Federal party had to dissolve because of the 
popular odium which it incured by the support of cer- 
tain measures. Its principles and measures attached to 
it the suspicion of aristocracy and monarohy, and not 
even the popularity of the great Washington, or the genius 
of Hamilton who belonged to it could save it from disso- 
lution. Its successor, the Whig party, though successful 
for a time met the same fate for pretty much the same 
reasons. The time has now come for the Democratic 
party to repeat the process and puss to the tomb of the 
Capulets! 

Opposition to disbanding the Democratic party may 
be anticipated from various sources. There are the mal- 
contents of t lie South, who hope lor a failure of the new 
order of 1 hings, and who are acting accordingly, who dream 
the idle dream of a resuscitated old South, and. perhaps 
of ultimate independence. They desire that the old or- 
ganization may be saved to be used as an instrument. 
Then there are the late day enthusiastic Democrats of 
the North who are vexing the public ear with incoherent 
twaddle about State Rights, without State remedies, and 
who. alter doing all they could to kill off the old demo- 
cratic principles, now stand around the lifeless corpse 
of the party uttering lugubrious protestations that the 
Democratic party shall never die! lake the priests of an 
Eastern superstition, after much incantation and astrolo- 
gy, they proclaim that none hut democrats must be 



( 11 ) 

elected to office, for that they can settle the whole busi- 
ness according to the Constitution! 

Last of all come those political nondescripts who left 
the Republican pnrty after it had done all that they 
complain about, and joined the Democracy when they 
had become powerless to afford a remedy ; men who 
favored the war but opposed its consequences ; men who 
joined right lustily in starting the avalanche of revolution, 
but who now seem to stand appalled at the work of their 
own hands, and roll up their eyes in hypocritical horror 
at the sight of the destruction in the valley below. 



The Principles of Liberty not lost by the 
change of system. 

State Rights are gone root and branch, but all is not 
lost. I mean not the "unconquerable will and study of 
revenge" ascribed by Milton to the fallen Angels, but 
every thing remains that should excite the highest aspi- 
rations of the freeman. 

The States as political organizations were a means, not 
an end. They were supposed necessary to fortify and 
protect certain rights and institutions of the minority, but 
they never conferred any rights which is not now enjoy- 
ed by every American Citizen. As a means of interven- 
tion, the Slates have been overthrown, but the individu- 
al rights of the citizan, and his protection on life, liberty 
and property, the great ends of all good government, are 
the same that they ever were Indeed it may be said 
that these individual rights are placed on a broader and 
surer footing than before, because the amendments have 
not only added to the body politic a vast number who 
never belonged to it, but they have thrown around all 
popular rights the sanction and protecting regis of the 
superior national government. 

Experience, I think, will demonstrate that liberty is 
not only possible under the change of theoretical system, 
but will be shared by a larger number. The only dan- 
ger of such a system is its natural tendency to imperialism 
and personal government. To resist this tendency, the 
union of the good and wise of all sections will be required. 



( 12 I 

id it will be the mission of some Dew party, if the Re- 
publican party makes default, to do this by insisting up- 
on tlic noninterference of Congress, or of national major- 
ities, with the local concerns of the States, or with the 
rights of minorities. The times seem to demand a par- 
t\ of this character, and Democrats will naturally take 
their place in it, because they are jealous of the powers 
of government, and have always been advocates of strict- 
construction, local self government, and the rights of 
individuals. 

Aii'l it musl no! be forgotten, thai because a party 
under a certain organization and name passes out of ex- 
istence, it- principles are nol all lost. It -imply sloughs 
oft* an .«1<I existence with its mistakes and errors and 
takes new form and life. The essential and more ap- 
proved principles of the old Federal and Whig pari 
did noi perish with those parties, lmt they now animate 
the ruling party, and have continued in some form to 
this day. There are differences in mental organization 
and habits of thought which will cause men to range 
themselves into opposing parlies in all governments of 
the popular form, under differenl names it may be at 
diflferenl limes, hut always preserving their distinctive 
characteristics. And parties thus constituted will con- 
tinue to exisl in all the mutations of our institutions. 

By a strange anomaly in our history, the position of 
panies in this country has been exactly reversed. 
'The original Republican party of l"'. 1 - - !. and its successor 
the Democratic party, which had always been iii favorof 
the rights of man and of the largesl liberty, became the 
stand-still, conservative party, while the old elements of 
Federalism and Whiggery united with the (dement of 

the free Democracy, for d the presenl Republican 

party, which has carried freedom to four million of 
sla\ es ! 

These positims should be changed again to occupy 
their natural order. Now, thai slavery is destroyed and 
the special occasion for the presenl Republican party 
passed, it will .-nun begin to Bhow signs of the original 
elements of which it is composed, and be marked by all 
the characteristics of the progenitor. It will be the 
strong government party, with decided centralizing and 



( 13 ) 

monarchical tendencies, and will naturally take sides 
with the corporations and moneyed powers of the coun- 
try against the people. 

The new party which the country demands, will, after 
its first successes, settle down into something like the 
old Republican and Democratic parties, as they were in 
the days of their triumphs under Jefferson and Jackson, 
before they assumed the unnatural role of conservatism, 
and became the defender or apologist of human bondage. 



The true position of the South and what 
she should do. 

The war having accomplished a social revolution in 
the South by which her peculiar institutions have been 
overthrown and superseded by the opposite system, the 
case is not one for accepting the situation merely, because 
there is no choice to reject it, but it is a question rather 
of adaptation and assimilation. The nation is to be ho- 
mogenized on the basis of free labor and equal rights. 
True statesmanship is now to labor for reconciliation, 
and the speedy adaptation ol the southern people to the 
new order of things. On no other basis can there be 
any permanent settlement of the question. 

Southerners need not to be asked to deny or apologize 
for the course they saw fit to pursue in 1860-1, for it was 
the result of their education and of their supposed in- 
terest, but as sensible people they must admit that they 
have been the lo-ing party, and recognize the facts as 
they find them. It is the fate of the defeated party in 
all revolutions or civil wars, whether it is a struggle for 
the succession to a crown, or when conflicting opinions 
ami institutions are left to the arbitriment of the sword. 
After the long and bloody contest between the Houses 
of York and Lancaster, and between the Round-heads 
and Cavaliers in England the body of the British nation 
acquiesced in the results, which by common consent 
became a part of that intangible thing called the British 
Constitution. The successful war party always dictates 
the terms of peace, and the South will never find any 
others than the amendments which have been declared a 
part of our National Constitution, 



(14) 

It is idle now to speculate upon what might have been 
done if coercion had do! beenresorted to, and a convention 
of the States called to adjust differences. I always believed 
that in this way war. with its immense sacrifice oflifeand 
treasure on both sides, might have been avoided, 
gradual emancipation provided for, and the Union saved 
by peaceable means. Bui the North was phrenzied and 
the South precipitate and self-confident, and such was 
the temper of both sections thai the conflict was only a 
question of time, [f the sword had nol been drawn in 
the exercise of doubtful coercive powers under the Con- 
stitution, it is quite certain thai the North never would 
have consented to permanent separation, and we should 
have had in the en I about what we see now: conquest, 
emancipation, equal suffrage, reconstruction and all, if 
the South had persisted in separate independence. 

It should go far to reconcile th mghtful men to 
existing changes when we consider thai the men of both 
sides seemed to have been borne along the current of an 
irresistible revolution, and became the instruments of an 
all-wise Providence to effect purposes of His own ! 

Nol sullen submission in defeat, not "masterly inac- 
tivity" as badly advised by some of her pretended 
friends, is the duty and policy of the South, but earnest 
and hearty effort in the work of assimilation, and for 
the development of the highest blessings of the new 
civilization. The situation musl not only be accepted, 
but carried out and enforced. The best and only way 
to escape Ku Klux laws and bayonet bills is to see that 
there shall be no necessity or pretext lor them by providing 
through the local governments, and the cultivation of a cor- 
reel public sentiment, for a vigorous enforcement of the 
amendments and pf the laws passed in pursuance '^' 
them. There can be no terrors in the amendments to 
a people who are disposed to do equal and exact justice 
to .-ill men. 

The mistake of the South at Now York, in 1868, wa- 
in deciding to take do active part, to urge no policy. 
Dor present any candidate, hut leaving all to be determined 
by the Northern Democracy. She should have taken 
the lead, but of course in the right direction. She 
should do so m»w. She is most vitally interested in 



( 15 ) 

the speedy and permanent settlement of these questions. 
Considerations of her peace and prosperity forbid that 
she should longer remain the battle ground of contending 
factions, or the political shuttle-cock of demagogues. 

The intellect, learning and influence of the South 
should cease to rest in inglorious self-abdication, and 
assert themselves at once in the affairs of government. 
In all popular governments these powers are supreme. 
They may have been powerless in the beginning of 
reconstruction, but if the South continues to be ruled as 
she has been, her people will have nobody but themselves 
to blame. It is ridiculous to suppose that a handful of 
impecunious adventurers, by manipulating the freedmen, 
can continue to rule over the intelligence and influence 
of the South. A few men may be disqualified from 
coins: to Congress, but now all Southern citizens are 

DC 1 O 

voters, or may be, and are eligible to office in their own 
states, where most of the evils are to be corrected. 

The principal evil of negro suffrage has been that a 
few unprincipled men, under cover of the quasi-military 
governments, were enabled to organize and consolidate 
the ignorant and helpless freedmen against the native 
population, for political or personal ends ; but this un- 
natural and revolutionary alliance is fast breaking up by 
the discovery of the freedmen that they have only been 
used as instruments, and their true interests will hereafter 
identify them with the Southern people. The delicate 
and responsible relation of capital and labor, in a new 
form, now exists between the freedmen and the old 
master class, and they would naturally come together if 
undisturbed by mischievous influences from without, and 
make the best solution of the question possible. There 
is no natural enmity between the negroes and whites of 
the South, and the appearance of it is altogether ficti- 
tious and abnormal. 

The close corporation of political knaves with the 
freedmen once broken up, the latter would soon be 
absorbed in the legitimate parties of the country, or 
perhaps suffrage and office-seeking by the incapable of 
them fall into non-usage. This, however will regulate 
itself. 

The other evils of conferring suffrage upon a people 
but imperfectly qualified for it, can be remedied when 



( 16 ) 

Jeerae 1 necessary b} employing the standard of intelli- 
gence as in Massachusetts and some of the other states, 
which may be done consistently with the amendments. 
But it will be the duty of the South to provide in the 
amplesi manner for the education and elevation of the 
colored population, for it would be monstrous to den} 
the means of education, and then cul off suffrage for 
want of intelligence. All these evils, therefore, can 
never be corrected by opposing negro suffrage or war- 
ring upon the race in any manner, but by accepting and 
controlling it. 

No National Democratic Convention 

ought to be called for 1872. It were better for each 
State to act upon its own local issues upon matters 
most directly affecting it, and agree by some concerted 
action upon the candidates for president and vice-presi- 
dent for whom tin electoral vote should be cast in op- 
position to the Republican ticket. Issues that are 
pertinent to Louisiana and South Carolina, with their 
various local complications, can have no application to Ohio 
or New York, and yet each one might vote for the same 
candidate for president. This would perhaps be too 
rapid a change from the old system to which parties 
have been accustomed, and therefore it would be well 
enough lor an Independent Reform Convention of the 
People to assemble, to make the nominations and declare 
a few general measures for the reform of abuses. 

It would l)e better for some man who could command 
the confidence of the country, to announce himself an 
independent candidate for President, briefly declaring 
the principles and measures of his Administration, and 
let him run by common consent. 

Bui besi of all would he for the Republican part) 
itself to undergo self-purification, and adopting a more 
Liberal policy towards the Smith, meet her on the ad- 
vanced ground above indicated, and labor more earnest- 
ly for reconciliation and reform, and let President Grant 
outer upon his second term through a patriotic alliance 
of the wise and good of both sections. This party is in 



( 1' ) 

better position than any new party could be to accom- 
plish the work. And all candid men must admit that 
General Grant's administration has been in the main a 
decided success, and would in all probability be improved in 
another four years. The financial branch of it has been 
marked by signal ability. 

The country now presents something of the con- 
dition of chaos in the state of parties which was 
found in another period of our history, when all parties 
united on James Monroe. Let Grant be our second 
Monroe! In the meantime men could take their political 
bearing, and parties would be organized and take their 
stand on some natural and philosophical basis. 

Should this not be done, some new party must come 
in to fill the requirements of the times. 

To determine who should be the candidate of such a 
party in 1872 is not so easy as to determine who it shall 
not be. It should not be Hendricks, nor Hoffman, nor 
Pendleton, nor any member of the house of Bourbon. 
With any of them defeat is inevitable. 

The candidate should be a Republican in politics, not 
only in order that no suspicion could attach of a design to 
reopen settled questions, to inaugurate reactionary 
legislation, or give countenance to counter-revolutionary 
measures, but because the cardinal principles of the Re- 
publican party would lie at the foundation of the new 
organization. lie should be in favor of civil service 
reform, retrenchment, and in general come up to the 
Jeifersonian standard, be honest, faithful and capable. 
He shonld be in favor of general amnesty and of remit- 
ting to the people of the South the control of their own 
local governments, and should be opposed to the con- 
tinuance of armed occupation of the South and to the 
further rule of the " thieving carpet-baggers." 

The material is abundant for choice. There is still 
Chief-Justice Chase if not too feeble, who should have 
been nominated in 18G8. And there are Gov. Brown of 
Missouri, Senator Trumbull of Illinois, Ex-Gov. Cox 
and Mr. Groesbeck of Ohio. The friends of Horace 
Greeley ought to keep him out of the Republican Con- 
vention where he is sure to be slaughtered, and let him 
run as the Independent People's Candidate. No better 



.0*-/ 



10 



man could be found than Carl Schurz, If he were only 
eligible. 

Of course the old Democratic Leaders musl dropout 
of public sight, unhinged from all prominence in public 
affairs, even as the fossilized remains thai have been 
deposited by the preceding ages are sometimes thrown 
off and dislodged by the upheaving forces of nature. 

"Superfluous lag the veterans on the Stage." 



The South must depend on herself, and 
work out her own Salvation. 

The South need no longer wail for relief from the 
old Democratic party, under the delusion that the 

people may be led to reverse their judgment and de- 
cision on any of the old questions, for they never will 
reverse them ! If she continues to rely on this her 
hands will be pierced. She need not rely on any divi- 
sion between the Northern people on any of the essen- 
tial grounds of controversy between the two sections, 
or between the East and West on any question that 
may divide them, which may enable her to revive her 
ancient principles, or restore her ante-bellum condition. 
Those divisions will never come! But accepting rather- 
and building upon the results of an accomplished 
revolution, let her go forward in the now career which 
has been opened to her to achieve a higher prosperity 
and glory than any she has ever enjoyed in the past! 

An Old-Line Democrat 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 

013 744 489 6 



